Tag Archives: Stoicism

Short then is the time which every man lives, and small the nook of the earth where he lives; and even this only continues by a succession of poor human beings, who will very soon die, and who know not even themselves, much less him who died long ago. — Marcus Aurelius.

What upsets people is not things in themselves but their judgments about the things. -Epictetus.

The goal is not to eliminate or repress the emotions to become devoid of feeling, the goal is to attach the right judgments to them. We can find happiness, love, and beauty without desiring more than is within our control. We can enjoy music so long as we do not wish for it never to end. We can enjoy a cold drink in the sun if we do not at the same time wish for it never to pass. –Seneca.

Enrolment is now open for the Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training (SMRT) 2017 online course. This is a free eLearning course, which Donald Robertson has been running once or twice each year for Modern Stoicism since 2014. You can access the preliminary area now and the four weeks of the course will officially begin on Sunday 16th July, when enrolment will close. This year over 500 people enrolled within the first 48 hours after it was announced on social media. Around 650 people are now enrolled and we anticipate that will have increased to nearly 1,000 by the course start date.

In the first year, over 500 people took part in SMRT and data was collected from participants, using the Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS) and a battery of validated outcome measures of the kind used in research on CBT and positive psychology. You can download a PDF of our report here showing the findings in detail: SMRT_Report_2014

CSInvesting: Though this philosophy takes active practice, you might find developing the ability to control your thoughts and reactions to what you encounter in daily life helpful–especially in dealing with Mr. Market. Below is a schema of Stoicism (Click on diagram, then enlarge through your browser to read text).